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The OKC Thunder might feel ashamed today.

But as Robin Williams said to Matt Damon, “It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault.”

Yes, it’s hard to blame the players for intentionally fouling Houston center Omer Asik seven times in two minutes last night, plus one other intentional foul that wasn’t called and two other shooting fouls in the fourth quarter.

The players were following orders: Stop the game because we don’t like how it’s going; don’t compete on the floor because you’re not good enough to win this playoff home game against the No. 8 seed; do not try for steals and blocks and stops; let’s keep our own crowd out of the game; let’s not get out and run and try to come back with the second-best player in the world doing what he does best; let’s not play basketball for a while because the Rockets are better at basketball tonight.

So it’s not their fault. They never had a real chance. They never had a real chance at a thriller of a comeback win. They never had a chance to do the thing they’ve trained their entire lives to do. They didn’t even get 48 minutes to show fans watching in the arena and on TNT and around the world that they could win Game 5 on talent.

How many times will we get to see Kevin Durant try to lead a series-clinching comeback win in the final five minutes of a nationally televised Game 5? Not many, and that rare opportunity last night was taken from us, and from him. With OKC stopping the clock and letting Houston set up its defense, Durant didn’t score a single point in the fourth quarter.

And it’s hard to blame Thunder coach Scott Brooks for trying to win (even if the strategy itself was dumb).

Can somebody explain to me why this hack–a–stuff is fun to watch? @hoopidea

— Michael DeCicco (@mdecicco17) May 2, 2013

@hoopidea change the rule on the "hack-a-(insert player here)" strategy. This isn't fun ball for anyone to watch! Especially w/ 5+ min left!

— Daren Simmons (@DarenSimmons24) May 2, 2013

But it’s easy to blame a system that puts the game in the hands of the coaches and referees and the rulebook instead of the players.

The league has an enormous amount of intentional fouling of all kinds. The league continues to say it has the best athletes in the world.

It’s amazing that it would reward fouling at the expense of those athletes.

Obviously, the entire sport and the league’s reputation for excitement are built on the fact that those great athletes can do amazing things -- and built on those amazing things happening during live play and not at the free throw line or in a boardroom somewhere with the suits making rules that give coaches more control over the game.

And while physical play is to be expected when bodies compete for space and the ball and baskets, there simply is no reason to reward intentional violence and intentional fouling. There is no reason to encourage coaches to take the game out of the hands of their players because the rulebook gives them another way to “win.”

The NBA is the greatest basketball league in the world, without a doubt. Sooner or later, it will stop rewarding intentional violence and intentional fouls, as other basketball leagues have done.

You often hear, especially in the playoffs, we should let the players decide the game. Amen.

• Jeff Schultz of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The new tough-minded, cool and resilient, ain’t-no-call-in-the-world-gonna-cause-us-to-trigger-another-nuclear-meltdown Hawks returned to action Wednesday night. And they stuck around — for about a quarter and a half. Not long enough. What was it coach Larry Drew said earlier Wednesday when asked what had to change from when his players packed a suitcase, but clearly not their lithium, for games 1 and 2 of this playoff series? “Very glaring,” he said. “In games 1 and 2 we were not a very aggressive team, and we complained about all of the calls. You have to play through that. You can’t let that be a reason why we don’t play well.” … Question: What happens to the Hawks when their coach doesn’t tell his players to keep their cool? The Hawks lost by 23 points, 106-83. The Pacers now lead the series 3-2, with Game 6 in Atlanta on Friday. Drew has 48 hours to hose everybody off until then. Said Al Horford, “I know at times it can get frustrating but we can’t do that, especially on the road. … We have a group of emotional guys who want to win. But you have to be smarter.”
• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: For weeks now, coach Frank Vogel has been waiting for a vintage Indiana Pacers defensive performance. For weeks, he’s been looking for the active hands, the help-side defense, the dig-in mentality that made the Pacers a dangerous and intriguing team all season long. Finally, after 12 straight games of giving up 90 or more points, the real Pacers — or at least we think they’re the real Pacers — showed up when they had a “must” win playoff game. Finally, after 12 games of watching their defensive numbers become bloated, the Pacers did a number on the Atlanta Hawks, beating them 106-83 in Game 5, taking a 3-2 series lead in a foul-besotted game that seemed to last four hours. The 90-point number is not an insignificant statistic for the Pacers. They were 31-6 during the regular season when holding opponents below 90, 18-26 when they did not. That, friends, was vintage. That was the Pacers who finished third in the Eastern Conference with 49 victories. That was who they are, but haven’t been in way too long.
• Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald: Doc Rivers is fond of bringing in additional coaches during the playoffs. Which makes it a bit unfortunate that Terry Francona has a new gig. But it’s fair to assume the Celtics coach will, if he hasn’t already done so, be ringing up his old pal, the former Red Sox skipper and current Indians manager, as he tries to stitch together Celtics-Knicks 2013 with Sox-Yankees 2004. Rivers had to reach when his band of Bostonians fell behind the New York entry, 3-0, in this first-round playoff series. Hey, the basketball talk wasn’t exactly getting through. But after last night’s 92-86 Shamrock shakedown of the Knicks, it’s 3-2, and there has to be at least some trepidation on the latter’s plane as it heads to Boston today for a Game 6 tomorrow night that they never thought would be necessary. “Well, I’ll just say we’ve talked about something in that (vein),” said Rivers of the reference to the Red Sox’ comeback from three down in the American League Championship Series. “I’m not going to give you what we talked about, but it’s a guy. We’ve talked about people . . . yes. I’m not going to say what.” According to Celtics players, their coach told them about Kevin Millar, who now famously told people prior in ’04 that the Yankees shouldn’t let his team get Game 4. He reasoned that the Sox had Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling set to start Games 5 and 6, and if his club got to a seventh game, anything could happen. “If we win this next game, then anything’s possible,” said Jason Terry.
• Marc Berman of the New York Post: The Knicks and J.R. Smith said this series was over, but somebody forgot to tell the Celtics. In nothing short of a choke, the shaky Knicks allowed the Celtics to keep their season alive and take Game 5 in a 92-86 shocker Wednesday night at the Garden, staving off a so-called “funeral’’ for Boston. The Knicks appeared to get too full of themselves in the past few days and it cost them. Smith bragged the series would be over if he played Sunday. Following the lead of Kenyon Martin, several of the Knicks players had black jackets and black slacks hanging in their lockers before the game, pretending they were attending the Celtics’ funeral. After Game 4, Martin said he would wear black Wednesday after Jason Terry told him Sunday he wouldn’t let the Knicks dance at their funeral. Martin did and his teammates did too in a presumptuous move for a franchise that hasn’t won a playoff series since 2000. “We were going to a funeral, but it looks like we got buried,” J.R. Smith said. The Knicks still lead the series 3-2, but it’s headed back to Boston, echoing memories of 2004 when the Red Sox rallied from a 3-0 deficit to trounce the Yankees. No NBA team has recovered from a 3-0 series deficit.
• Nick Matthews of the Houston Chronicle: Kevin Durant apparently doesn’t know Omer Asik. The way Asik is playing, Durant will soon. In the fourth quarter of the Rockets’ 107-100 Game 5 victory, Oklahoma City used a strategy of fouling the Rockets’ center intentionally in hopes of making a comeback. It didn’t work, as Asik made 7-of-12 free throws in the stretch and eventually finished with 21 points. Durant called the strategy — “Hack-A- … Whatever His Name Is.” “We used hack-a …” he stumbled, trying to say Asik’s name, “whatever his name is, that kind of slowed the rhythm down a bit.” Oklahoma City was down 92-82 when it began the strategy and only cut the lead to 99-92 before giving it up. Here’s guessing that Rockets coach Kevin McHale might bring that one up to Asik for motivation.
• Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman: The Thunder-Rocket series is proving two things, at least on the Oklahoma City side. How good Kevin Durant is. And how good Russell Westbrook is. The Rockets clubbed the Thunder 107-100 — it wasn't that close — in Game 5 Wednesday night, and everyone in Thunder blue is thinking the same thing. Uh-oh. History could be in the making. No NBA team ever has won a playoff series after trailing three games to none, but the Rockets are halfway there. And headed home to Houston. “Go home for Game 6,” said Rocket star James Harden, who posted a cool 31 points on 10-of-16 shooting. “It should be interesting.” Nothing but interesting. Even in victory, the Thunder has seemed completely lost without Westbrook, the mercurial point guard who suffered a season-ending knee injury in Game 2. Without Westbrook, the Thunder load is completely on Durant, who was mighty for three quarters Wednesday night, with 36 points on 11-of-18 shooting.
• Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post: How physical will Game 6 be? The Nuggets took their shots in Game 5 — and received a few as well. Will they continue this style of play? Perhaps more important, will the referees let them? Getting more hands-on with the Warriors was a large part of the Nuggets' success Tuesday. Golden State is ready to respond. Will the supporting cast show up again? Ty Lawson has been the lead player for the Nuggets in this series, but he had plenty of help in Game 5. Andre Iguodala nearly had a triple-double (25 points, 12 rebounds seven assists). All five starters — including a newcomer to the opening lineup, center JaVale McGee — scored in double figures. Wilson Chandler had his best game of the series, scoring 19 points (including five 3-pointers). Can the Nuggets force a Game 7? Denver needs to win Thursday night in Oakland, Calif., to play Game 7 at the Pepsi Center (where the Nuggets are 40-4 this season) on Saturday. To win Game 6, Denver needs to play better in the second half. During the series, the Nuggets have been outscored by 30 points in the second half.
• Carl Steward of The Oakland Tribune: While coaches Mark Jackson and George Karl continued firing shots Wednesday regarding alleged dirty tactics against Stephen Curry, Curry was ready to move on to new business. Curry said undue focus on the mounting physicality in the opening-round playoff series can only do a disservice to himself and his Warriors teammates as they try to finish off the favored Denver Nuggets at Oracle Arena on Thursday night. "Nobody's really talking about it in the locker room," said Curry. "We're just approaching Game 6 like normal. You can't get distracted by that. We have a chance to close out the series at home. It's a big opportunity we have to take advantage of." Jackson, however, continued to zero in on the Nuggets' rough treatment of Curry, specifically what he viewed as an intentional kick by forward Kenneth Faried to Curry's ankle. "I can live with physical basketball. Taking a stab at Steph Curry's ankle is not physical basketball," Jackson said. "If you attempt to kick him with your foot on his foot, that's not a basketball play. That's a cheap shot." Karl responded to Jackson's assertions at Denver's Wednesday practice. "My basic reaction is he's watching a different movie than I'm watching," Karl said. "If there's a scorecard and we're in a boxing fight right now, they're winning the fight. We won a round (here and there), but I'm going to tell you, I'll go to any arbiter now and show the dirty shots -- they're winning."
• Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times: During the Game 5 telecast on TNT, Steve Kerr was asked about Rose working through the mental hurdles of coming back from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and said, “I think where the Bulls are now with this series with Kirk Hinrich struggling with the calf injury, if Derrick is OK and there’s no threat to further injury, I think he’s got to play. He has to put himself out there for 15-20 minutes. “Look at what [Joakim] Noah and Hinrich are putting themselves through with their injuries. I think it’s time for Derrick . . . maybe he owes it to his teammates.” Hinrich said Rose doesn’t owe them anything. “We don’t feel that way,’’ Hinrich said. “We know what kind of guy he is and what kind of teammate he is, and we don’t feel that way. I haven’t heard one ill word said about it. You give a guy who has that type of character the benefit of the doubt. We know that he’s such a big part of this organization and this team that we trust he’s making the right decision for that and for himself.’’ Rose was working on his outside shot at the end of practice Wednesday but did not meet with the media, trying not to be a ¬distraction. Good luck with that.
• Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News: Belief is important. Talk is cheap. The Nets have always walked along that thin line. So why stop in the playoffs? "There's no doubt in our mind we are the better team," Andray Blatche said Wednesday, a day before Game 6 against the Bulls. "We're just in a hole." When the Nets step on the United Center court Thursday, they'll be one loss from elimination, one heartbreak away from a disappointing inaugural campaign in the outer borough. But trailing the Bulls hasn't sapped Brooklyn's public confidence, which has been swollen from the time players declared their championship aspirations in training camp. But the Nets have good reasons to trump their chances against the banged-up Bulls. They'd be leading this series if anything had gone right in the final three minutes of regulation in Game 4. Chicago point guard Kirk Hinrich missed practice Wednesday and is listed as "day-to-day." Derrick Rose is still unlikely to walk out of the locker room in a uniform. Joakim Noah is injured and getting abused by Brook Lopez. The Nets have a full roster, albeit with a starting shooting guard, Joe Johnson, who said Wednesday that his plantar fasciitis has him playing like "a decoy."

David Thorpe has his doubts the Thunder can even beat the Rockets, let alone win a title. And Russell Westbrook's injury is only part of the story.

• Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post: One cheap shot can change everything. The mojo in this NBA playoff series turned decidedly back in the favor of the Nuggets when Golden State center Andrew Bogut turned into a coward and went for the throat of Kenneth Faried. Any guise of good sportsmanship is gone. This is a brawl. Oh, it's on now. Golden State coach Mark Jackson accused the Nuggets of being "hit men." Faried countered by alleging Bogut has repeatedly hit him in the throat. Denver did more than beat Golden State 107-100 on Tuesday night to stave off an unwanted start to summer vacation. When Bogut lost his head, taking a cheap shot at Faried, it was the first sign Denver had wormed its way into the heads of the Warriors. "He just hit me, and I was shocked," Faried said. "But I was happy about it." Bogut cracked. And there is a crack in the door for the Nuggets to beat the odds, show Golden State who's boss and make an unlikely comeback from a 3-1 deficit to win the opening-round series. … Thanks to Bogut, they look like wannabe thugs. After a loss in Game 4 at Golden State, Faried was so frustrated he kicked a hole in the locker room wall. "They can bill me," Faried said. He'll be back, for Game 6, with the pressure on Golden State. This time, Faried and the Nuggets are looking to kick tail. The mind-set the Nuggets will take into this fight? "We ain't leaving here," Faried said, "until we've won."
• Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: Stephen Curry had a cold, cold look in is eyes for the last half of Game 5 on Tuesday, and he still had it in the locker room later. He looked outraged after the Warriors' 107-100 loss to Denver. He looked bruised. Really, he looked like he was plotting vengeance. And most of all, Curry looked like he wanted to play Game 6 right here, right now instead of having to wait until Thursday at Oracle Arena. … It’s not happy-fun, it's edgy NBA playoff-fun, where the longer a series goes, the more the passion and dislike boils over into something like an alley fight. And where there are on-court taunts and messages sent, including, according to Warriors sources, Nuggets players repeatedly telling Curry that he was a soft player. The Warriors still lead this series 3-2, and now they are angry, too. … Though the Warriors were clearly outplayed in this game, which denied them their first shot at clinching this series, their locker room was feeling good about the late comeback and the home game Thursday. And mostly, they were fuming about the hits Curry took from the first minutes of this game. "They tried to send hit men (at Curry)," Warriors coach Mark Jackson said. The general point: The Nuggets delivered most of the hits--legal or not--and the Warriors failed because they didn't recover until the fourth quarter, when it was too late. The implied point: The Warriors are planning to hit first, second, third and 100th on Thursday.
• Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times: It's tough to win a playoff game going one on five. The Clippers gamely tried Tuesday at Staples Center, but not even the sustained brilliance of Chris Paul was enough on a night he nearly doubled the output of his fellow starters with 35 points. The Memphis Grizzlies didn't deliver a powerful jab during a 103-93 victory in Game 5 of their Western Conference first-round series as much as what seemed like a knockout blow, taking a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. Now that the series has started, to use that expression about the road team breaking through for a playoff victory, it's pretty much over for the Clippers. They have lost three consecutive games, and as tempting it is to use Blake Griffin's sprained ankle as an excuse or tout the Clippers' recent success at FedEx Forum, where they won twice in the playoffs last season and twice during the recently completed regular season, well, forget it. If Tuesday's no-show is any indication of the way the Clippers intend to play at a time when they need contributions from everybody, then they might as well call it a season instead of taking the flight to Memphis for Game 6 on Friday. That could be the end of the Vinny Del Negro era and these Clippers as we know them.
• Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News: Just the other day Blake Griffin was talking about how different these playoffs are compared to last year - the key being no longer having to drag an injured leg up and down the court. If Griffin didn't believe in the power of the jinx then, he might now. All it took was jumping innocently Monday during practice and then planting his right foot onto the foot of a teammate upon landing. The result being a sprained ankle so severe that if this was the regular season his absence might be measured in weeks, not hours. Not to mention a first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies that just got turned on its head. Griffin gutted it out Tuesday in Game 5, but gone was all the explosiveness that makes him one of the most gifted forwards in the game. He was limited, and it showed. And that left the Clippers stuck in first gear in a game they absolutely had to have to hold onto any sort of control of this series. … The problem is, ankle sprains don't just go away in a day or two, leaving the Clippers vulnerable the rest of the series. They have a training staff players continually praise for getting them ready to play, regardless of the situation - but they'll be put to the test between now and Friday's Game 6 to get Griffin's ankle to a point it can carry him through another game. The question is, will he be the decoy he was Tuesday or someone capable of actually contributing? And can he give them more than the three quarters he played in Game 5? Nothing less than the Clippers' season hangs in the balance.
• Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: What took so long? The Hawks vaulted back into their first-round playoff series against the Pacers by starting a bigger lineup that resulted in convincing home victories in Games 3 and 4. The greatest of the many benefits of the move has been the matchup of Josh Smith on Paul George. It has been a clear victory for the Hawks that has the best-of-seven series tied 2-2 and headed back to Indiana for Game 5 on Wednesday night. Smith has stifled George on defense. The Pacers’ All-Star small forward averaged 25.0 points, 9.5 rebounds and 7.5 assists in Games 1 and 2. However, he averaged 18.5 points, 10.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in Games 3 and 4. He had only three points at halftime in Game 4 on Monday when the Hawks built what was an insurmountable lead. He has not been the facilitator he was who made the Pacers’ offense so effective in the first two games. Smith also has prevented the Pacers from getting the ball to George in favorable places on the floor. The lineup change also meant that George had to guard Smith. It’s another battle won by the Hawks.
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: It’s something nobody thought would happen at any point of the season, especially in the playoffs. Indiana Pacers power forward David West hasn’t had an impact in the series against the Atlanta Hawks. Not West, the backbone of the Pacers. Not West, the team’s most consistent player the past two seasons. Not West, the veteran savvy player who has managed to overcome his shortcomings in speed and athleticism to often end up schooling players at his position. Yes, that West. West continued to be unnoticeable Monday when the Hawks evened the series with the Pacers via their 102-91 victory at Philips Arena. … “I have to figure out a way to be more effective in this series,” West said. “I feel like I have an advantage at times, but we have to be able to catch a good rhythm in these games.” West is right: It’s time for him to get out of his funk. The Pacers need him. No offense to Paul George and the rest of the team, but they won’t win this series without West getting back to being the David West of the regular season.
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: After missing the game's most important shot Monday night at Houston, a stick-back attempt from point-blank range, Ibaka whipped his head back, and then his body, and then crumpled to the court. As he remained on his backside, Ibaka put both arms over his head. He couldn't believe what he had just done. He had just cost the Thunder the closeout game at Houston. “It was tough. It was tough,” Ibaka said Tuesday, a day later. “I wanted to try to save my team, and it didn't happen. It was tough for me.” On the list of Thunder players who didn't deserve to deal with that amount of agony, Ibaka ranked a close second to Kevin Durant. … “It was my first time to be in that position, you know?” Ibaka tried to explain. He continued. “I didn't sleep last night, man.” … Ibaka insists he'll learn from it. “The good thing about it is we have one more game (Wednesday),” Ibaka said. “Like I said, for me, that was my first time to be in that position. It didn't happen, so now I know how it feels and I'm going to move on.”
• David Barron of the Houston Chronicle: Patrick Beverley has endured summers in Chicago and winters in Russia, so there isn’t much chance he’s going to get emotionally distraught over another night in Oklahoma City. And even if Beverley were prone to get his feelings hurt when people hurl abuse his way, he can consult one of the NBA’s reigning experts on the fine art of being a visiting team villain. “In the famous words of Bill Walton, if they’re cheering you in the opponent’s gym, you’re doing something wrong,” said Rockets coach Kevin McHale, a veteran of the Lakers-Celtics brouhahas of the 1980s. “I don’t think they’re cheering (Beverley), so he must be doing something right.” Wednesday night’s Game 5 will be the Rockets’ first game at Oklahoma City since the Game 2 incident in which Thunder guard Russell Westbook suffered a knee injury when he appeared to be trying to call a timeout and Beverley moved in for an attempted steal. Westbrook required season-ending surgery, and Beverley received all manner of Internet abuse from Thunder fans, including a couple of death threats from a Twitter account linked to an Oklahoma City ball boy.
• Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald: Kevin Garnett will take the Madison Square Garden floor this evening to participate in his 1,453rd NBA game. He insists that he hasn’t considered there may not be a 1,454th. If the Celtics do not defeat the New York Knicks tonight, their season will be over — a 4-1 Eastern Conference quarterfinals exit. One of the first questions that will follow is whether Garnett’s career, too, will be at an end. But the Big Ticket doesn’t want to consider the fact he may be punching his ticket to retirement. Such thoughts can only get in the way. So when he sat his 6-foot-11 frame down at the C’s practice facility yesterday, his vision was sharply tunneled. He seems to play most every game as if it could be his last. But would this one be any different because it could be, you know, the last? “Not really. Game 7’s an all-out,” said Garnett, echoing a team theme that every game now is a Game 7, even though tonight’s is, indeed, Game 5. “That’s just what they are, the last opportunity to survive. Your mentality can’t be anything different.” … So if he did spend yesterday morning wondering what Thanksgiving on a beach would feel like, he wasn’t sharing that later. And he didn’t want to ante up for any hypothetical poker.
• Howard Beck of The New York Times: J.R. Smith will rejoin the rotation Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, and in all likelihood, the Knicks will close out the series. No N.B.A. team has come back from a 3-0 deficit, and the Celtics will probably not be the first. The Knicks have not lost a home game since March 7. The elbow, the suspension and the loss may ultimately become a footnote to an otherwise glorious season. But if the Knicks stumble in Game 5? If Tyson Chandler’s neck flares up? If Raymond Felton’s ankle turns? If Carmelo Anthony goes 10 for 35 again? Sometimes, it takes just a single sprain, one unlucky bounce or a shooting slump to turn a series around. The smart teams know this, and they act accordingly, treating each game as vital. Whether this series ends in five games, six or seven, the Knicks will have cost themselves vital recovery time — even more crucial for a team relying on so many older veterans. They need to preserve Jason Kidd’s 40-year-old legs and Kenyon Martin’s surgically repaired knees for the challenges ahead, and the expected showdown with the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals.

It's late in a close game, your team has the ball, and they need to decide what to do.

Pick and roll? Isolation? Drive and kick? This shooter? That one?

These are tough decisions and precisely why coaches get the big bucks.

Too bad so many teams keep screwing these decisions up in these playoffs.

My radical proposal, developed over the last several years of obsessing over this stuff: Whatever your team does, it ought to be something with a good chance of succeeding. There are lots of right answers.

I'd bet big money time will make clearer that the wrong answer is to call timeout to set up an isolation play. No matter your opinion of advanced stats, these things are all true:

• Timeouts hurt the offense and help the defense.
• Isolations consistently rank as just about the least effective type of NBA play.
• It's essentially impossible to find evidence any player is predictably efficient against the double team.
• "Any random open player" has been shown to be a better option than a covered superstar, and it's not close.

And yet, look what has been happening in these playoffs.

THUNDER GAME 4 vs. ROCKETS

This has been the season that many teams have seen the light about moving the ball to the open man. For instance, instead of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade vs. the world, the Heat have surrounded their stars with deadly shooters. Predictably, it has made a massive difference.

The Spurs were counted out as old, but dusted almost everybody by continuing their long-term worship of uncontested shots.

See the trend there? Good teams that don't play Hero Ball sweep the first round.

Meanwhile, of the league's three top contending teams (Miami, San Antonio, Oklahoma City) this season, the Thunder were always the holdouts. They have long believed in isolation hoops. Perhaps this is no surprise ... their coach had a playing career that coincided almost perfectly with the heyday of isolation play. Smart research has long shown that the Thunder's offense is at its best when Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook shot a little bit less, but the team sure does not run plays with that in mind. Their strategic approach has always been built around the idea that they want those guys shooting the rock.

The Thunder roster, led by the stars, are so doggone good that makes for a top-five NBA' offense anyway. But when Westbrook went down to a knee injury, a scary new decision faced Oklahoma City. Without Westbrook, would they finally see the value in open shooters? Or would they double down in their commitment to superstars, only this time with just one left?

The problem with having only one superstar is that my mom could draw up the defensive scheme. (On Monday night's broadcast Chris Webber saw what the Rockets were doing late to cover Durant and declared it the first time in his entire life he had seen a full-court double-team.) It's easy to make sure Durant faces a ton of defense every possession, and so what if he occasionally beats 'em all?

The result was the Rockets -- perhaps the worst defensive team in the playoffs -- held one of the league's best offensive teams (60-game winners) to a grand total of three buckets over the game's five final minutes. In that time Derek Fisher, Kevin Martin, Serge Ibaka and Thabo Sefolosha spent all kinds of time -- on video, it's glaring -- standing all alone in position to catch and shoot. Research shows open role players in those kinds of situations are vastly more effective than covered stars. According to NBA.com's stats tool, however, those four together combined for a grand total of one attempt, while Durant and fill-in Westbrook -- Reggie Jackson, took all the shots.

Simply put, with more respect for open shooters, and less fascination with who's shooting, the Thunder absolutely could have scored more. And they only had to score a tiny bit more to, you know, end the series.

It came to a hilarious head with 12 seconds left. The Thunder had been force-feeding Durant so religiously the defense scarcely looked at anybody else. And yet, in the face of evidence timeouts only help the defense, and despite a Rockets team scrambling to get in place, the Thunder called a timeout.

They hadn't run an actual play in a half-hour, and weren't about to. What could there have been to talk about? It was the stuff of Twitter jokes:

@truehoop "just to confirm guys, we're going with Kevin. I know you know, just wanted to emphasise. So, yeah... ' - Scott Brooks.

— Anton Trees (@as_trees) April 30, 2013

 

After letting the defense get set, the Thunder flirted with turning the ball over, and ended up losing valuable seconds trying to establish Durant. He gave up his dribble in the face of tough defense, almost turned it over trying to get it to Jackson, who scrambled to create a Hail Mary out of a broken play that failed at the buzzer.

Would it kill you to run a pick-and-roll?

ROCKETS GAME 4 vs. THUNDER
All the things I just wrote about Durant and the Thunder go double for the Rockets and James Harden. Kevin McHale uses Harden like you used your favorite new song when you were 12 -- again and again and again until it's completely worn out.

As much as the Thunder offense was good all season but bad in crunch time, the Rockets are the kings of that particular dynamic, and have been for the same reason all season. They're also famously the most analytical team in the league, meaning almost certainly somebody is telling McHale this is a bad idea, but he's doing it anyway.

The Rockets' late-game offense consisted largely of Harden shooting tough shots against the Thunder's hand-picked defenders, Sefolosha and in one case after a switch, Ibaka, with teammates standing still and watching with the shot clock expiring. These are awful conditions for an offense -- how strange for the offense to have set up the conditions that precise way.

Non-Harden players made two of five shots in the final five minutes. None of Harden's three shots were all that close. One was an airball.

This is an old trend from the Lakers, which has been generally true throughout Kobe Bryant's career: The team builds a lead playing some kind of team-focused ball, and then the offense grinds to a halt late in games when the offense focuses increasingly on the team's "best option." In reality the team's best option is to keep using the screens, cuts, passes and movement of people and the ball that got them the lead in the first place.

KNICKS vs. CELTICS GAME 4
The Celtics won this game. Here's an exchange that shows why: With 1:12 left in regulation and the Knicks up two, Paul Pierce took a handoff from Kevin Garnett on the left side. Everyone knows Pierce is the Celtics' closer, and everyone knows his go-to closing move is a nifty little fall away jumper around the free throw line. By the time Pierce got to his spot and elevated, Tyson Chandler, Carmelo Anthony and Raymond Felton formed a nice crowd around him.

But ... surprise! Pierce didn't shoot. He passed. Back to Garnett. Who had roughly 400 square miles of open space all around him, as the defense had been wholly duped into crunch time hero worship. Garnett stepped into a nice tidy open jump shot. Not a hero shot at all -- and therefore a wonderful one, with very high expected points per possession. The best shots are open shots.

Meanwhile the Knicks, like the Thunder, were missing a key scorer -- in this instance J.R. Smith was out. And like the Thunder they used that as an excuse to go Hero Ball all the way.

So on the next possession New York got the ball to Carmelo Anthony, who was very well covered by long, lean Jeff Green, and missed a 29-footer as the clock expired.

It was as the Knicks believed there was literally magic in Anthony's fingertips. For much of the season the Knicks were a study in ball movement, with shooters hoisting open 3s at record rates. They tossed that playbook for this game, however, instead having Anthony launch 35 shots almost all of which were heavily covered. He missed 25.

The Knicks averaged more than 19 assists per game this year but finished this 53-minute overtime game with 10. It's easy to see why -- because in situations when a covered Anthony would have once passed to the open man -- and there were plenty of them -- out of a misguided conviction it was best for his team, in this game he fired away.

In the final five minutes of regulation plus overtime a collection of the Knicks most efficient shooters -- Steve Novak, Jason Kidd and Tyson Chandler -- didn't take a single shot, while Anthony shot a mighty ten and made but two. Non-Anthony Knicks, meanwhile, were three-of-six over those crucial ten minutes.

The role of a coach is to guide a team to run the plays that give the team the best possible chance of success. If you were an NBA owner, how long would you keep believing in a coach whose teams used the exact opposite approach when it mattered most, running plays that would predictably get bad results?

• Mark Bradley of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The notion struck midway through another second quarter in which the Atlanta Hawks were extracting, without Novocain and with great force, the “d” from Indiana. “The Pacers can’t guard the Hawks,” declared a correspondent watching from on high, “and the Hawks can guard the Pacers. How’d that happen?” These are the Hawks and this is the postseason, so who knows? But know this: The Hawks can win this series and if they do, it won’t be much of an upset now. Indiana, the East’s No. 3 seed, just spent two games in Philips Arena making a case for itself as the most overrated team in the history of basketball, and the unloved Hawks … well, they’ve been lovely. Yes, this best-of-seven is tied at 2, and yes, the Hawks will have to take a game in Indianapolis, where they lost twice last week by an aggregate 32 points, in order to advance, But the dynamics of this matchup have been inverted. The Pacers, with much to lose, seem capable of losing it all. The Hawks, whose modest mission this season was not to stink before the real rebuilding begins this summer, look like a team constructed by a master craftsman. … So what happens now? The Pacers are very good at home, but they’ve been handed real reason to doubt. The looks on their faces during that second quarter spoke of anger and frustration but mostly bewilderment. This series was theirs to win. They’re in peril of losing it to a team that was built to be torn down.
• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. So never mind what a certain not-so-humble (but good-looking) columnist wrote a couple of days back in this space: This Pacers-Hawks series isn’t over. It’s far from over. In fact, it’s just beginning, a best-of-three with two games in Indianapolis, after the Pacers’ 102-91 Game 4 loss to the Hawks. Mea culpa, mea culpa — which is Latin for “Man, did I get that wrong.” It still says here the Pacers win this series in six games — at some point I’m bound to be right about something — but it’s easy to lose the faith while watching the way they’ve regressed to the disconnected, defenseless style of play that marked the final week and a half of the regular season. What’s happened to this group? This was the league’s second-best defensive team in terms of points allowed. This was the league’s top defensive team in terms of field goal percentage allowed and three-point field goal percentage allowed. But they’re getting absolutely skewered by the Atlanta Hawks, who are making plays and leaving the Pacers players with hands on hips, shooting each other empty, angry glances. … Raise the red flags. Sound the alarm bells. This series, which never should have become a series, has left the Pacers with almost no margin of error. Color me fooled. And chastened.
• Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle: Finally, the ball did not bounce 12 feet in the air and stab the Rockets in the heart. Kevin Durant did not get the last shot. The Rockets held on. After consecutive games in which the Rockets did everything but close out a win, they held their breath as a pair of last-chance Oklahoma City shots came up short. When Reggie Jackson’s runner and Serge Ibaka putback missed, the Rockets escaped 105-103 on Monday night, sending the first-round series back to Oklahoma City with the Thunder leading 3-1 but giving the Rockets their first playoff win since 2009. “We know we can play with these guys,” said Chandler Parsons, who led the Rockets with 27 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. “We know we can beat these guys. We were in the same situation the last two games. No way we were going to give it up.” They had clearly earned it, coming back from a 13-point deficit and making just enough stops with the game on the line to extend their season to Game 5 on Wednesday night. “Great win by us,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. “It was a gutsy win. I told our guys before the game, ‘One thing about our team, we’re not going to lay down.’ They fought all year long. We had different lineups. We’ve had different kinds of stuff happen. The one constant has been their willingness to go out and scrap and fight. I said, ‘There’s no way we’re going to lay an egg tonight.’ We went out and we fought hard.”
• John Rohde of The Oklahoman: The frenzied finish resulted in a 105-103 loss for the Thunder, which failed in its quest to sweep this best-of-7 opening-round playoff series. Leading 3-1, OKC will try to close out the series in Game 5 at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Chesapeake Energy Arena. The best news arrived roughly 90 minutes later when the Thunder boarded its charter and returned home after four draining days away from home. The team left OKC on Friday afternoon just hours after learning three-time All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook would be out indefinitely with a lateral meniscus tear in his right knee. The following morning came news that Westbrook would be lost for the entire postseason after having surgery in Vail, Colo. Later that night was Game 3, the first contest in Thunder history with no Westbrook on the court. OKC jumped out to a 26-point lead and managed to hang on for a 104-101 victory. A collective sigh of relief was visible from Thunder players, even from veteran power forward Nick Collison, who admitted it had been an emotional 48 hours.
• Tim Smith of the New York Daily News: Ten days ago the Nets defended their home court at Barclays Center and opened their first-round series against the Bulls with a victory so resounding it seemed they were launching into a run that would carry them deep into the postseason. On Monday night, the Nets returned home having lost three straight games, including a triple-OT fiasco that followed an epic fourth-quarter collapse in Game 4. Gone was the ebullient spirit of that inaugural playoff game at Barclays Center, replaced by an atmosphere of desperation and disappointment as the Nets, in a 3-1 hole , stared down elimination. Only eight teams have rallied from that same deficit, but the Nets were 5-0 in Game 5 elimination games. There was hope. Brooklyn stoked that ember of hope and beat the Bulls at their own game, staving off elimination with a 110-91 victory . Now they head back to Chicago to face another elimination game on Thursday. “Our backs are against the wall right now,” said forward Gerald Wallace. “We’re in fighting spirit. We’re a fighting team and we’re not ready to go home. We feel like we’re better than this team. We feel like we’re good enough and a better team and we can come back and win three in a row just like they did.”
• Vaughn McClure of the Chicago Tribune: The Bulls needed Kirk Hinrich for all 59 minutes he played in a Game 4 triple-overtime win. Monday night in Game 5, they had to figure out how to proceed without him. The simple solution, with Hinrich sidelined by a bruised left calf, was a heavy dose of Nate Robinson, who was coming off his 34-point explosion in Game 4. The offensive-minded Robinson, however, is light years behind Hinrich in terms of defensive ability. Rookie Marquis Teague and Marco Belinelli spelled Robinson for brief stints, but Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau relied heavily on his diminutive point guard, playing him 43-plus minutes. As Hinrich watched from a row behind the bench, Robinson played with his typical high energy but failed to match his Game 4 output. He looked for his teammates more than his own shots for a good portion of the game and seemed to run out of steam in the end. He scored a team-high 20 points and had eight assists in the Bulls' 110-91 loss to the Nets. Robinson went 1-for-5 from 3-point range and committed three turnovers. His most costly miscue came with two minutes left in regulation. Robinson picked up his dribble against Deron Williams and tried to force a pass to Luol Deng. Nets forward Gerald Wallace stepped into the passing lane and broke free for the game-clinching dunk. "Had a crucial turnover down the stretch that really hurt us,'' Robinson said. "I take the blame for that, and that's something I have to do better."
• Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post: Faces crinkled and shoulders shrugged in befuddlement. The question: What now? The Nuggets, down 3-1 to Golden State in their opening round playoff series, have had few defensive answers to the Warriors' offensive onslaught. What to do? It is suddenly a tough question. "Uh ... I don't know," Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried said. "I really don't." Nuggets guard Andre Miller: "That's the coaches' decision to figure out the adjustments, who is guarding who, certain things like that. It's a pride thing, and I think the coaches will figure out a way to adjust to things." Nuggets guard Ty Lawson: "Man ... whatever the coaches come up with." The problem is, most everything the Nuggets have tried on defense in this series hasn't worked after Golden State's all-star forward, David Lee, went down with an injury in Game 1. Warriors coach Mark Jackson then went with a small, three-guard lineup that has given the Nuggets fits. Lee's absence has turned the Warriors from a conventional team to a wild card, from having a dual low-post game to running a spread — four shooters on the perimeter, each with the ability to create a shot for their teammates. As a result, the Nuggets' defense been stretched thin and distorted beyond recognition.
• Carl Steward of The Oakland Tribune: In 438 best-of-seven playoff series throughout NBA history, only eight teams have rallied from 3-1 deficits to win. But coach Mark Jackson is having nothing with the odds that favor the Warriors to advance as they head into Denver for Game 5 on Tuesday. "We expect to see a tough Denver Nuggets team that's fighting for its playoff life, that's prepared and ready to keep the series going," Jackson said Monday. "The most difficult game is the close-out game. I've got a young team, and if we keep doing what we're doing, we'll put ourselves in position to move on. But it's a tough task, because this is a very good Nuggets team." The last team to complete a comeback from being down 3-1 was the 2006 Phoenix Suns. Kobe Bryant led the seventh-seeded Los Angeles Lakers to the 3-1 advantage, but Phoenix won three games fairly handily to salvage the series. In 2003, the Orlando Magic got up 3-1 on top-seeded Detroit, but the Pistons rallied after the Magic's Tracy McGrady pronounced that it felt good to get out of the first round. The Warriors are making no such pronouncements. … Another number that doesn't favor the Nuggets: In seven of his eight seasons as Denver's coach, George Karl has failed to get out of the first round, three of those times with home-court advantage in the series.
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: Lionel Hollins went with a trust factor over gut feeling. Who can I trust? That’s the question Hollins and Los Angeles Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro will ask themselves over and over again Tuesday night during a pivotal Game 5 of their Western Conference playoff series in Staples Center. Game 5 winners have gone on to win playoff series 83 percent of the time. So it’s no wonder that rotations shorten and coaches lean on a select group they deem old reliable in a long playoff series. “We’re trying to play the people who are producing and not have huge gaps or lulls,” Hollins said. “I’ve been trying to piecemeal rotations and keep our (starters) fresh. Everybody that got in (the rotation) during the regular season isn’t getting to trot out there. It’s just the way it is.” The series is knotted at 2-2 but the coaches couldn’t be further apart in philosophy. Hollins hasn’t dug deep into his bench and even regular-season super sub Bayless disappeared over the past three games. Conversely, Del Negro relied on most of his roster. He’s played all but two healthy players in the series.
• Phil Collin of the Los Angeles Daily News: They've bludgeoned each other for four games and they will for at least two more. But the more the Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies have at each other, the less pure basketball tactics will make a difference. In tonight's Game 5 of the best-of-7 Western Conference playoff series, mind over matter figures to trump anything out of a playbook in the Staples Center clash. "The biggest thing is a sense of urgency is going to be the key," Clippers guard Chauncey Billups said. "They played desperate basketball, now it's our turn. We have to make a few adjustments, but it's our turn now to play with a sense of urgency." The first-round series has been a classic case of NBA playoffs through the years. The teams are seeded fourth and fifth, and the team playing at home has been the aggressor and the victor. It's no surprise the series stands at 2-2, especially after they went the full seven a year ago. How close are these teams? To a man, they'll point out the one physical matchup that has illustrated the direction of this series, and it's rebounding. Win the rebound battle, win the game. And a closer look at the four games shows the margin of rebounding is eerily close to the margin of the final score.
• Jerry Brewer of The Seattle Times: As I've written before, this was the best time for the NBA to return, and now that Seattle feels left at the altar, old wounds have reopened, and old bitterness has resurfaced. With no expansion on the table, there is no clear path to acquire a team, and while the deal to build a $490 million Sodo arena could stay together for up to five years, can the fan base really stand to go through another relocation tug of war with an incumbent NBA city? It's impossible to trust that a victory is possible until Stern retires. Count the days until Feb. 1, 2014. Maybe then, when Adam Silver takes over as commissioner, the game will have clear rules. Hansen tried to win the right way. He tried to do it with transparency; no buying the Kings and pretending to want to stay in Sacramento. He tried to do it with record-setting money and a polished business plan. But the NBA is a liar's game, full of hypocrites, improper alliances, a lack of financial creativity and a commissioner who is more powerful than the owners he represents. Stern revises the rules according to his whims. It seems Seattle was destined to lose in this ever-changing game. We're back in a familiar place with that spirit-crushing league. Abandoned. Again.
• Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee: "Justice prevailed," said Jerry Reynolds, who has been with the Kings since their inaugural 1985-86 season in Sacramento. "This is the right decision. Seattle is a great city that deserves an NBA franchise. And at some point, they'll have one." But … "But this is our team," Reynolds added forcefully, and note the high level of cooperation that was necessary to facilitate the public/private partnership for a downtown sports and entertainment complex. "Sacramento is a major-league city, and it simply has to have a major-league sports team to grow. "When we travel around the country and see how these arenas have revitalized downtowns in Los Angeles, Indianapolis, Miami, to name a few cities, I keep thinking that a downtown arena here can be just as special. And this was probably Sac's last best chance."

• Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: When Stephen Curry is officially anointed the greatest shooter of all time, they will talk about this game, and they won't have to say much else. When and if the Warriors finish off Denver in this series, they will point to the final 4 minutes, 22 seconds of the third quarter Sunday night, and it will all be explained. When thousands of Oracle Arena fans suffer from partial hearing loss for days and weeks, maybe years ... well, they will know what happened. Curry happened, like a thunder clap, over and over and over again. Was this the birth of a superstar? "Those guys are just coming to the hospital," Warriors coach Mark Jackson said of newcomers to the Curry-is-a-Superstar Bandwagon. "The baby has been born already. "We've been watching it all year long. He's put this team on his back. ... Here's where you recognize where the great players are." And from that, there might be no turning back. The practical result is that Curry's magical 22-point third quarter -- and 19-point storm in the final 4:22 -- pushed the Warriors to a 115-101 victory in Game 4 of this first-round series. "I was feeling a little warmer, bodywise, in the third quarter, just get a rhythm," Curry said after his ankle pain led to a sluggish first half. "The goal kind of looked a little bigger."
• Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post: Nuggets swingman Andre Iguodala is paid a salary of $15 million, give or take the retail price of a yacht. But, right now, you can bet Iguodala would invest heavily to buy a clutch basket, a vowel or the star quality of Golden State guard Stephen Curry. Behind 31 points from Curry, the Warriors ran Denver out of the gym Sunday night with a 115-101 victory. After winning 57 games during the regular season, the Nuggets have picked a lousy time to suffer a three-game losing streak against the Western Conference's No. 6 seed. Here is Nuggets coach George Karl, with all the analysis you need from this series: "They're probably twice as good as shooters as we are." Curry is a bona fide NBA star. And Iguodala is not. With his team now a single game from elimination in the opening round of the playoffs, it appears Karl could become the most sheepish, miserable winner of the league's coach of the year award. … Here is what is sad. Iguodala's solid reputation is built on defense. Yet there is nothing Iguodala or anybody else on the Nuggets' roster can do to stop Curry, even when he's at less than full strength. Unless your name is Bill Russell or Dennis Rodman, the notion that defense wins championships in the NBA is largely a myth. This league is built around big shots who hit the big shot.
• Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News: These Lakers were closer to the Sacramento Kings. But the Spurs convinced themselves of something else entirely. They took Popovich’s appropriate-fear message to another level; it was a self-created, alternate-reality fear. Baynes’ surprising start might have helped, since he wasn’t about to overlook a thing. But the energy that went through the Spurs was deeper than this. When Parker wasn’t spinning toward the basket, DeJuan Blair was moving his feet and muscling the Lakers’ big men. Afterward, a reporter reminded Tim Duncan of his long history with the Lakers. Without Bryant in uniform, did this feel like a chapter in that book? “You know what,” Duncan began, “it’s hard to answer that question.” Then, he answered it. Firmly. “I’m playing here and now to get to the next round. I’m not worried about the history of whatever, and the series of whatever. We were here to beat the team that was in front of us to move on. And however you want to put it in the book and put it in whatever chapter, we won this series, and we’re moving on, and we’re happy about that.” They should be beyond happy. The Spurs turned this series into an extended practice. They found rhythm they had lost at the end of the regular season, giving Tiago Splitter and Boris Diaw maybe a week to get healthy, and this will help everyone from Mr. Pop to Baynes. For when the real playoffs begin.
• Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times: Superman took a powder. A cornerstone crumbled. The dude just left early. "This is like a nightmare," said Howard later. "This is like a bad dream and I couldn't wake up out of it." Here's how that nightmare can end. The Lakers don't re-sign it. The Lakers walk out on Dwight Howard the way he walked out on them. The Lakers shake themselves awake after watching Howard's pathetic performance Sunday and have the courage to move forward without him. Interestingly, just as the Lakers' phony glitter disappeared, their strongest fabric arrived. Moments after Howard's ejection, with the team trailing by 21 points, yeah, you guessed it, Kobe Bryant showed up. Making his first public appearance since tearing his Achilles' tendon just over two weeks ago, Bryant hobbled out to the chair behind the bench. The crowd stood and roared for the first time all afternoon. Bryant sat there the rest of the game, cheering and coaching. This franchise may be a mess, but it's still Hollywood's mess. … Even with Howard, they would be mediocre next season, so why not play without him while waiting for the contractual freedom in the summer of 2014 that could put them back in the championship race. Granted, once Bryant retires, the Lakers will never again be led by such a great closer. But you'd think they'll eventually be able to find someone actually willing to finish.
• Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: Here’s how you close out a series: 17 points in a four-minute stretch during the fourth quarter, including four three-pointers and a three-point play by LeBron James. Then, for good measure, a raucous dunk by James to cap it all off. James’ powerful, emphatic basket with 2:41 left in the fourth quarter gave the Heat a 16-point lead, sent Dwyane Wade out of his chair in celebration and sent the Heat into the second-round of the playoffs with a four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Bucks. The Heat defeated the Bucks 88-77 to close out the series. It all seemed almost too easy. The Heat held the Bucks to 85.3 points per game, and for many of the players, including veterans such as Ray Allen, Mike Miller and Shane Battier, it was the first series sweep of their careers. “Sweeping is the toughest thing you ever do,” said Udonis Haslem, who had 13 points and five rebounds. “Teams’ lives are on the line, and they might understand that they might not come back and win the whole series, but guys want to get one because it’s a pride thing. Nobody wants to get swept.” It was the Heat’s first sweep since the 2005 playoffs when Haslem and Wade swept through the New Jersey Nets and then the Washington Wizards in the first two rounds of the playoffs before losing to the Pistons in seven. The Heat now must await the conclusion of the first-round series between Chicago and the Nets — the new Brooklyn Nets — before focusing on its next opponent. The first game of the second round can begin no sooner than Saturday.
• Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times: Let’s play a Milwaukee Bucks edition of the game “Should he stay … or should he go?” After being swept from the playoffs Sunday by the reigning champion Miami Heat, most card-carrying members of Bucks Nation would like to see a thorough housecleaning of their favorite team, starting at the top with owner Herb Kohl to the bottom with the video coordinators. Can’t blame them, either. The Bucks had a most despicable season. From the beginning of training camp, when a disengaged Scott Skiles was coaching the team, to the middle of the season when they traded talented young forward Tobias Harris to Orlando for perhaps a rent-a-player in J.J. Redick to Sunday’s season-ending game, there has been non-stop turmoil surrounding the organization. You don’t have to possess telepathic powers to realize heads are going to roll. It’s just a question of how many of them. Rest assured, this offseason figures to be infinitely more intriguing and entertaining than this season. So, who should stay and who should go?
• Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News: Maybe now J.R. Smith will think twice about swinging an elbow to clear out an opponent in the heat of a playoff battle. This was the best way for Smith to learn his lesson: The hard way, with the Knicks missing him dearly in their 97-90 overtime loss in Game 4 on Sunday at TD Garden. And how is this for justice? Jason Terry, the guy Smith sent to the parquet with his blatant elbow on Friday in Game 3, prompting the NBA to suspend the Sixth Man Award winner, outscored the Knicks by himself in the overtime session, 9-6, to keep the Celtics alive. With Smith, the Knicks are clearly superior to the wounded Celtics, a No. 7 seed trying to make do without Rajon Rondo in this first-round series.But without the 16 points that Smith has averaged in this series, the Knicks fell behind by 20 and didn’t have enough shot-makers to match Terry in overtime in losing for only the third time in their last 22 games. Smith will be back Wednesday for Game 5 at the Garden. “I don’t care if Patrick Ewing comes back for them,” Terry said. “We’re going to treat it like a Game 7.”
• Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe: There was no question, if this was Jason Terry’s final appearance at TD Garden as a Celtic, if the team decides to include him in an expected slew of offseason moves, he was going to exit with brashness. So on the fast break in overtime Sunday against the New York Knicks, when he could have penetrated to the hoop for a layup or drawn a foul, Terry pulled up a foot behind the 3-point line, unleashing a long-range shot with supreme confidence. The result? Swish. Swishes have been rare this season for Terry, signed to a three-year deal to essentially replace Ray Allen. He has turned out to be a defensive liability and erratic shooter. Yet, when the Knicks were stopping the Celtics’ halfcourt offense like Patrick Roy circa 1993, the Terry of old stepped in, scoring the final 9 points as the Celtics lived at least one more game with a 97-90 win. … Sunday was vintage Terry, the one who peppered the Miami Heat with jumpers in the 2011 NBA Finals, the fireball who plays with fearlessness, not anxiety, who approaches the moment with vigor, not hesitancy. “He was great,” Rivers said.
• Mark Bradley of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: When we speak of all the things Josh Smith can do, Saturday’s Game 3 is what we mean. On a night when losing would have equaled cetain elimination, he scored 14 points, took six rebounds, made six assists and limited Paul George, the star of Games 1 and 2, to four baskets. Smith wasn’t the statistical standout – Al Horford had 26 points and 16 rebounds – but he was surely the Hawks’ MVP. Sometimes it seems as if we’ve spoken of no other Hawk for almost a decade, but Game 3 offered yet another reason why the Josh Smith conversation remains ongoing. When he’s good, he’s really good. (And he has been really good rather often, or else we’d never have noticed him in the first place.) When he’s not, we ask why. Then we point to the 3-pointers and say, “That’s why.” If Smith had never discovered the 3-point shot, he’d be one of the most admired players in the sport. Mike Woodson had all but disabused him of the urge to launch; in his final season under his first professional coach, Smith tried only seven treys. In three seasons since succeeding Woodson, Larry Drew has allowed Smith to keep doing the thing he does worst, and that has undercut the greater effect. Think about it. Has there ever been a player of such skill and such seasoning about whom there remains such a kerfuffle over shot selection?
• Bob Kravitz of The Indianapolis Star: The Pacers, these Pacers, are not the stay-out-all-night, party-hearty, go-hard-or-go-home types. So why can’t the Indiana Pacers, losers of 12 straight games in Atlanta, beat this ordinary Hawks team on the road? Why can’t they come into Philips Arena, which is usually three-quarters filled with fans who’d rather be watching football, and take down a team that will be dismantled at season’s end? It’s understandable to lose 11 straight in San Antonio, as the Pacers have. It’s not understandable to lose 12 consecutive times in Atlanta, where the Hawks have been beacons of mediocrity over the years. … If the Pacers accomplished anything during their gruesome film session Sunday — Roy Hibbert called it “an airing of grievances” — it was reaching the conclusion that most of their problems were self-inflicted. While the Hawks were playing with abject desperation, the Pacers were just showing up. Asked his biggest disappointment after watching the game and then watching the tape, coach Frank Vogel didn’t hesitate. “Our offensive disposition,” he said.
• Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman: Kevin Martin says he doesn't deal in pressure. Doesn't acknowledge its existence. Fair enough. Let's use a different term. Responsibility. It's Martin's responsibility, more so than any other Thunder, to patch the scoring hole left by the injured Russell Westbrook. … Martin has not had a good series against the Rockets. Three games, 11-of-35 shooting, 38 total points. But we should have seen it coming. Martin arrived in the famous James Harden trade on Oct. 27 and was effective immediately. In 17 November games, Martin averaged 15.9 points. But his scoring has gone down every month, and the Thunder's reliance on Martin has gone down, too. In November games, Martin averaged 14.1 usages, which are possessions ended by a particular player, either by shot, foul shot or turnover. By March, that average was down to 12.2 and in April, 10.8. … Scotty Brooks, who has been preaching that no one can replace Westbrook's production, admitted he needs more out of Martin and even offered strategy that could help. “He scores better when he's moving,” Brooks said. “We gotta keep moving him.” If Martin can't be more productive with Westbrook gone, Martin will be moving, all right. Moving on.
• David Barron of the Houston Chronicle: With the Rockets’ playoff fate against the Oklahoma City Thunder hanging by a thread, coach Kevin McHale’s most important Game 4 decision might be whether he’s better off with a limited Jeremy Lin or a healthier but older combination of Francisco Garcia, Carlos Delfino and Aaron Brooks. Lin, who scored two points and was limited to 18½ minutes Saturday night by the chest bruise he suffered in Game 2, underwent therapy and ran on the treadmill Sunday while his teammates had a brief shootaround after watching film from Oklahoma City’s 104-101 win in Game 3. The Thunder lead the series 3-0, and no NBA team has come back from three down to win a best-of-seven playoff series. Garcia (18 points), Delfino (11 points) and Brooks (four points in nine minutes) in concert with Patrick Beverley had encouraging moments in Lin’s absence in Game 3, and McHale must decide how much Lin can contribute to that rotation Monday at Toyota Center. “That’s a big decision for us,” McHale said. “He couldn’t do a lot of stuff (in Game 3). We’re going to have to wait and see. It doesn’t do any good for him to play if he can’t help us. We’ll see.”
• Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times: Considering what the Bulls did to the Nets in their Game 4 come-from-behind victory in triple-overtime Saturday, there’s no need for such comments to be off the record. The players know that when it comes down to heart, toughness, will and playing team basketball when it matters most, the Nets just aren’t in the same class. “From my perspective, I think so,’’ Bulls power forward Taj Gibson said, when asked if the Bulls are just a tougher team than the Nets. “I mean, we had a lot of injuries this year. For the last three years we’ve had a lot of injuries, and we’ve always been able to overcome the injuries. We have guys that can step up on any given night and play 48 [minutes], play whatever is needed. That’s the difference. We have guys that are ready to step into that moment, and it shows.’’ “That moment’’ the Nets needed guys? Missing in action. It started with C.J. Watson missing a dunk with 3:16 left in the fourth quarter, which would have put the Nets ahead by 16. Before that miss, Brooklyn had been shooting 60.6 percent from the field. After that dunk? The Nets did what they seem to do best: They shrunk.
• Roderick Boone of Newsday: Rather than rewinding all the footage of their epic fourth-quarter collapse in Saturday's triple-overtime loss to the Bulls, the Nets probably felt better off simply burying it in the backyard like an old soup bone. "We won't watch the last three minutes and say, 'Look, we missed this free throw, we turned the ball over, we did A, B, C and D,' " interim coach P.J. Carlesimo said Sunday. "I think they are very acutely aware of the mistakes that we made and I don't think we need that for tomorrow." Beaten up mentally and physically after being on the wrong side of what many see as an instant classic, the Nets are forced to pick up the pieces quickly heading into Game 5 of their first-round matchup with Chicago at Barclays Center Monday night. They're trailing 3-1 in the series, and there's no time to dwell on how they never could seal the deal Saturday despite appearing to seize control of the game in the fourth quarter. No time to lament their slew of mistakes. They're on the brink of calling in for early tee times in a couple of days if they can't find a way to upend the Bulls and help erase those nightmarish memories of 48 hours earlier. "Disappointment is probably not strong enough, but an extremely tough way to lose," Carlesimo said. "But when it's all said and done, that's what it was. It's a loss, and having a day in between is good. We have to move away from the disappointment and channel it.”

The Oklahoma City Thunder's quest to take a 3-0 series lead nearly went off track Saturday night as they blew a 26-point lead before holding off a late rally by the Houston Rockets to win 104-101.

The Rockets are now 1-5 versus the Thunder this season, including the playoffs.

Durant leads the way
Kevin Durant tied a playoff career-high with 41 points to lead the Thunder in their first game since losing Russell Westbrook.

Durant played 47 minutes and had 86 touches, 42 of those came in the back court where he was used as the primary ball handler. Durant had 35 such instances in the first two games combined.

The Thunder shot 4-for-16 on shots taken directly after a pass made by Durant.

Durant had 39 touches in the first half, 25 of them coming in the backcourt where he was the primary ball handler. He had 63 first half touches in the first two games combined.

In the second half, the Rockets limited Durant offensively, and he was kept scoreless in the third quarter until a dunk with 27 seconds remaining.

This is Durant's 29th consecutive game with 21 or more points. That is the fourth longest streak over the last 40 seasons and the longest since Michael Jordan scored more than 20 points in 47 consecutive playoff games from 1996 to 1998.

Harden almost leads way to upset
James Harden almost single-handedly led the Rockets to the comeback win, scoring 30 points to go with eight rebounds and six assists. Harden has now tallied back-to-back 30-point games in this series.

Harden made nine field goals Saturday, six of them coming on drives to the basket. Harden is 14 for 22 over his last two games on such drives.

Thunder struggle inside of five feet
Oklahoma City made 11-of-26 field goals attempted inside of five feet with only one coming from a guard (Kevin Martin). The Thunder shot 42.3 percent inside of five feet, the third worst for any game this season. Westbrook averaged four made baskets per game from this distance.

What the win means
No team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series (103 instances entering this postseason).

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- As news of the injury to Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook reverberated through the NBA on Friday, the Los Angeles Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies reacted to the Westbrook’s possible absence in a potential second-round series between the Thunder and the winner of the first-round series between the Clippers and Grizzlies.

“[The Thunder] are still a great team even without him, but he’s a huge part of their offense and a great player,” Clippers forward Blake Griffin said. “So it does leave them vulnerable but we can’t really look to that yet. We can’t be focused on that. We have to take care of business first of all here, then set our sights on that.”

The Thunder announced on Friday that Westbrook will undergo surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee. The procedure has yet to be scheduled and there is currently no timetable for his return, according to Thunder team officials. Should Westbrook be sidelined for an extended period and Oklahoma City advances to the second round, he'd miss a series against either the Clippers or the Grizzlies.

Griffin, who suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee while training for the Olympics last July, said the recovery time can vary player to player, depending on the severity of the injury.

“As long as you’re not repairing, you can come back pretty quickly,” Griffin said. “But you’re a step slow. It takes a little bit to get that feeling back and to get the swelling completely out and all that.”

Grizzlies forward Tayshaun Prince said the Thunder’s depth will keep Oklahoma City very competitive, but that injuries can have a major impact on any team’s title chances.

“They’ve got a good enough team to where they’ll still be focused,” Prince said. “No matter what five guys they have on the court, they’ll play hard regardless, so they’ll always have a chance. But obviously we know that’s a big piece to their puzzle. Everybody’s vulnerable when you lose a big piece.”

Prince referenced the near-perfect health enjoyed by the Detroit Pistons’ 2004 championship team for whom he played all 82 games, and the Pistons' 2008 team with a hobbled Chauncey Billups that lost the conference finals to the Boston Celtics.

Clippers guard Jamal Crawford offered compassion for Westbrook while also acknowledging that the injury has implications in the competitive Western Conference bracket.

“As a competitor, you know you’re only a play away from being hurt, so you never want to see that happen,” Crawford said. “[Westbrook] is one of the best players in the league, so it makes this more interesting. That’s for sure.”

Like Crawford, many players on the Clippers and Grizzlies expressed their sympathy for Westbrook, who’s never missed a game during his five season in the NBA. Clippers guard Chris Paul said he spoke to Westbrook on the phone on Friday morning after news of Westbrook’s torn meniscus became public.

“[Westbrook] is a really good friend of mine, and I actually talked to him before we came to practice this morning,” Paul said. “I told him I feel for him, and praying for him, and I hope he’s back soon.”

Paul rejected the notion that Westbrook’s injury will have any impact on the Clippers’ current series with the Grizzlies, which the Clippers lead 2-1.

“It doesn’t do anything for our series,” Paul said.

Clippers veteran guard Billups agreed with Paul. He sternly insisted the injury has absolutely no bearing on the Clippers’ first-round matchup with the Grizzlies. He interrupted a question about the ramifications of Westbrook’s absence to drive home the point.

“It’s got nothing to do with this series,” Billups said. “I hope he gets healthy, but it has nothing to do with this series.”

Westbrook’s injury occurred when Houston Rockets guard Patrick Beverley lunged at the ball in search of a steal as Westbrook dribbled the ball to the sideline to call a time-out. Upon contact with Beverley, Westbrook fell to the floor, then rose, hopping to the bench in pain.

“That’s a freakish accident, that play,” Prince said. “I’m pretty sure the Oklahoma City fans will be pretty pissed off at Beverly.”

A who's who of NBA players are on the shelf. A team made of Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Rajon Rondo, Danny Granger, David Lee, Danilo Gallinari, Amare Stoudemire, and Lou Williams would contend. Instead all those players and more are out for all or most of the playoffs.

Asking what caused all those injuries takes you on a bit of wild goose chase. There have always been injuries in all sports; I doubt we'll ever know if these are connected in some way or just a random and unlucky collection of events.

But there is a better question with more of an answer: Are there things we can do to reduce the likelihood of injuries in the future? That's what Working Bodies is all about. And that's where the research is not crystal clear, but has been getting incredibly busy.

Violent moments

Russell Westbrook was injured on a play where Patrick Beverley went all out to help his team win -- even if it was both a long shot to work, and obviously creating one of the highest risk moments of Westbrook's night.

In the aftermath many have talked about Beverley's intent -- as if it's a important to know if he wanted to injure Westbrook or not. I say let's skip that debate. We'll never know his intent, and who cares anyway. Let's talk risk. Risk we know. All by himself Beverley created a moment that in retrospect is costing Westbrook, the Thunder and NBA fans a bunch of performances that were dear to all of them.

If I roll a bowling ball down the corridor of my office building, I may well hurt somebody. I might do it only with the most fun of intentions. But if you manage the building ... who cares? What matters is I don't do it again. What matters is I value my co-workers safety a little more.

The NBA would like Beverley to place a little higher value on Westbrook's safety. Forget what's dirty or not, or unknowable things like who's thinking evil thoughts. What's likely to cause injuries? Let's reduce that. Let's get players thinking, just a little more, about making sure they don't end each other's seasons. That's where plays like Beverley's, as well as blows to the head, and any plays that risk players hitting their heads on the court -- all things we now know are more dangerous than we ever thought -- ought to be the kinds of things the rules and the referees aggressively discourage.

Players going all-out to help their teams win will always have their supporters. It's a macho world. You won't get NBA legends lining up to support the NBA on this kind of change. That's fine. But if you're in David Stern's office, it's a problem that a player could make a dangerous decision like that, reckless enough to possibly end the season of the most resilient player in NBA history, and not even be called for a common foul, let alone a flagrant or an ejection.

These violent high-risk moments could be much more scarce. Many are intentional, which means they're not inevitable or part of the game, and would be easy to stop if people wanted to. Much of the time playing with little care about injuring others helps your team. If you ran the league, wouldn't you have to fix that?

A marathon

There's another lingering question for the league to consider: Are player spending too much time exhausted, and does that put them at excessive risk to get injured?

A little detour into running: If you train to run 400 meters -- that's one lap of the track -- training will include some 100-meter sprints and some mile-or-longer runs. Training works like that, more or less. You attack from all angles. Train for a five kilometer (3.1 mile) race and you can bet you'll do some sprints, as well as some runs are much longer than 3.1 miles.

But then there's the marathon. It's 26.2 miles. And if you train for a marathon, almost no matter what training regimen you use, you'll never be asked to run more than 20 miles.

 

Pretty weird, huh? You want to do five miles fast as you can, you'll sometimes run ten. You want to do ten miles fast as you can, and training involves regular runs of 12 or 15.

Race 26.2, though, and even at elite levels, chances are race day will take you further than any other day of the year. Almost all the experts agree on this.

And the reasoning is simple: Get a lot of people running 25 miles, and you'll get a lot of people injured. It just happens that way. There's some kind of real limit around 20 miles. Push past that, and maybe some outliers can handle it, but for the broad population it's just courting trouble.

Marathoners have known about this for decades and have long been skipping the monster training runs.

Meanwhile, it's looking like the 82-game NBA regular season might work like one monster training run.

Exhaustion does weird stuff

From a 2010 Brad Stenger article published by the Medill School of Journalism:

Gregory Dupont from the University of Lille's Laboratory of Human Movement Studies in France monitored injuries during the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 UEFA Champions League seasons. He found the injury rate was six times higher when players played two matches per week versus one match per week. He published the study in the American Journal of Sports Medicine last April.

During the regular season NBA teams play 2-4 games per week and travel longer distances than a typical European soccer team.

Researchers have been putting little heart rate and motion sensors on soccer players in Europe. What they've been finding is something not unlike what marathon training regimens have long known: Get somebody exhausted, and their likelihood of injury skyrockets, even for the kinds of injuries you might think have nothing to do with fatigue.

When you're fresh, your soft tissue has a certain elasticity. Your muscles and tendons can cope with a normal amount of upset, like say, another player bashing into you while you're trying to call a timeout. Also, your own ability to be balanced and coordinated -- now we're talking nervous system stuff -- is good when you're in your comfort zone. On top of all that, when you're training a comfortable amount, it's a cinch to maintain good form.

Get yourself good and worn out, though, and a lot of those systems that keep you safe go away. I started training for marathons a few years ago, and the first time I ran 18 miles, I felt great most of the time, but with about two miles left things changed. I started to feel mighty brittle, like if somebody were to push me ever-so-gently from the side I would simply topple over. Not to mention I was bleary-eyed, imbalanced, with ragged form, and making poor decisions. Where you used to have these living, breathing, expanding, contracting things called muscles it feels like you now have old rope.

It's more than a little scary, in that state, to encounter the tiniest obstacles. A bumpy sidewalk, a twig in the street, a car that doesn't give you much room ... any and all can put you in peril. You have little ability to adjust to life's little challenges.

Research suggests you're an off-the-charts injury risk at that moment. And it feels like it.

In soccer they've been finding that same stuff. Exhausted players evidently lack normal range of motion, balance and coordination. An impact, fall or collision that might not injure a rested person might injure someone who has been going hard every day for months. In soccer, experts working with this theory have, amazingly, predicted injuries before they happen. Basically, they can look at who's running ragged out there, who's deep in the red zone of exhaustion. And then they have often been correct -- even though the injury ends up coming on a fluky-seeming play.

Word is spreading

Increasingly, NBA teams are tuning into the perils of exhaustion. One of those soccer experts who brags about predicting injuries is Italian Jean-Pierre Meerseman, who spoke at the Global Sports Management Summit in May in San Francisco. Many NBA bigwigs were in the audience, and they report he blew their minds with tales of knowing who'd be injured before the injury happened.

One NBA front office guy who tracks the work of Meerseman and others says he's increasingly coming to the view that the best approach for stars is to spend as much time as possible with their feet up. He's thinking the winning approach, given the rigorous schedule, might be to forego everything else, as in every practice all season, as well as every minute of play that wasn't essential.

A company called Apollo MIS, which recently merged with STATS, does some of that European-soccer style exhaustion tracking, and has some NBA clients. One of their most enthusiastic is the Spurs ... the very team which leads the league every year in intentionally sitting stars. A game when the schedule has been harsh on them? Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker sit. Ditto for any fourth quarter when the game isn't close. Even as some claim they've found the fountain of youth for Duncan and the like, they've even gotten in trouble with the league for it.

But the way the data is shaping up, it seems likely the league is going to face some tough choices: Change the schedule in a profound way to allow for meaningful rest and real in-season training. Or stare down the barrel of a growing body of evidence suggesting one of the things causing NBA injuries are decisions made by the NBA.

The Thunder have announced that Russell Westbrook will undergo surgery to repair a torn meniscus after an injury in the second quarter of Game 2. At this time it's not known how long he'll be out.

How will the Thunder be different without Westbrook, who has literally never missed a game? ESPN Insider David Thorpe has watched the Thunder closely all year and offers the following thoughts:

1. Especially tough for this offense to adjust
The worst thing about this is that they have built a wheel around two spokes: Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. This is not Miami or San Antonio, or Utah with its flex offense of recent years. The Thunder offense is a series of isolations for the two main guys, with other actions sprinkled in here or there. That makes this, seemingly, as good a challenge as you can have. They have never worked on scoring without Westbrook because they have never had to.

Gregg Popovich takes long minutes of the regular season to mix in bench guys to prep for whatever might happen. The Thunder could have done that. They had all season to prepare the bench for these kinds of things. They didn't do that. They were never forced to do that, and they never chose to do that.

2. Reggie Jackson's opportunity
Reggie Jackson is a dynamic one-on-one scorer. He'll get the lion's share of the minutes that would have gone to Westbrook. He's not the same player. He plays much more below the rim, but for an occasional dunk. But he can get a lot of good things done.

What he doesn't have is Westbrook's spirit or fight. That's something the team will really miss.

Westbrook's demeanor is so incredibly valuable. At times he is the worst decision-maker in the NBA. It's like World B. Free sometimes. But he makes up for that with incredible attitude, drive and commitment. The Thunder aren't going to have that from the point guard position.

3. Not about the defense
Westbrook is an athletic playmaker on defense. He's not a great defensive player, but he contributes on a lot of plays.

4. Kevin Martin can do more
Kevin Martin has been a dynamic scorer in the past. Even this year, when much less has been asked of him, he has formed one of the NBA's most efficient duos with Nick Collison. They are literally one of the most effective combinations of players in the NBA. Martin can certainly handle more of the scoring load against the Rockets, who are one of the worst defensive teams in the playoffs.

5. Rockets not the problem
Without Westbrook the Rockets are certainly good enough to win two out of five against the Rockets. It's going to get more difficult after that against the Grizzlies or Clippers. But on the Rockets only Omer Asik is a problem. Nobody else on the Rockets causes a lot of problems when the Thunder are trying to score.

6. OK without Westbrook in short stints
There are some lineups without Westbrook that did well this season. (A search of NBA.com/stats shows, for instance, that Martin, Jackson, Derek Fisher, Kevin Durant and Nick Collison have been effective.) This team is better built than, say the Bulls, to win without their point guard in the postseason. The Bulls lost their best player, but the Thunder lost their second-best player, and have several more talented players left.

Kevin Durant it one of the best scorers in the history of the world. Kevin Martin is among the highest ranked in the league in points per possession and points per touch. Jackson has good numbers too. This is not like subbing in C.J. Watson.

7. Whole bunch of Durant?
It may be that Kevin Durant shoots a million times without Westbrook on the court. This will be a gigantic test of Scott Brooks. Tom Thibodeau certainly responded to Rose's absence by getting his guys to play very hard and together. That's the challenge for Scott.

How will the team take this news? I don't think they'll take it lightly.

The media will bring up the Harden trade again and again. That's a challenge to the players on the roster now.

Let me tell you nobody is rejoicing over there. But with the quality of players on that roster, guys like Serge Ibaka, Nick Collison, Kevin Martin and Reggie Jackson are thinking "I know I can step up and do more."

They're not going to be sleepwalking. I think they'll be ready and will win Game 3. The question is how they adjust to the idea over time, in Game 4 or Game 5. Are they thinking they need to hold on while Westbrook is gone for a while, or are they thinking he's gone for good? The latter idea is a much harder one to adjust to.

• Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News: Tim Duncan’s sixth-place finish in the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year voting sparked debate in the Spurs’ locker room about the difficulty media members face in choosing a winner for that award. Duncan blocked shots at a career-high per-minute rate and had the second-highest average of his 16-year career at 2.65 rejections per game. He has never finished higher than third in voting. (Grizzlies center Marc Gasol was announced the winner Wednesday.) Manu Ginobili offered a solution: Let the players vote for an award that is nearly impossible to quantify. “It is the toughest award they give away because players don’t vote,” Ginobili said. “It’s the player that (goes) against other players who know. Sometimes the best rebounder is not the best defender; or the best in steals is not a great defender. He just gambles a lot. “It could be (an award for players to choose), but it’s been going on for so many years. It’s not that I’m complaining, but probably we do know better than the media.” Duncan shrugged off the fact he never has won the award. Worse, he said, was the fact Bruce Bowen never won the award during his days spearheading the Spurs’ defense. “Now that was messed up,” he said. Ginobili believed Duncan deserved a higher finish than sixth.
• Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News: Game 2 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series against the Spurs bore little resemblance to Game 1, but the outcome was a spitting image in the Lakers' 102-91 loss. And it leaves the Lakers in a quandary much more complicated than just the 0-2 hole they find themselves in as they limp home to Los Angeles. They hobbled onto their charter flight Wednesday unsure who their biggest foe is: The Spurs, or an unforgiving run of luck that continues to wreak havoc on their minds and body. Not having Bryant was bad enough against the deep, talented Spurs. But then Jodie Meeks went down in Game 1 with an ankle sprain, Steve Blake suffered a strained hamstring Wednesday and Steve Nash was so banged up after playing Games 1 and 2 he'll undergo another epidural Friday. "It hurts to see guys go down," Lakers center Dwight Howard conceded. And the way they were hobbling around the locker room, you wonder if they'll have enough players to field a full team in Game 3. … Now the series shifts back to Los Angeles, the Lakers can only hope playing at home provides the necessary lift needed to ensure they make it back to San Antonio for Game 5. That might be wishful thinking, especially with a depleted Lakers roster shrinking by the day. But it's all the Lakers got. Unless Kobe Bryant decides to lift the gag order and provide some answers. Or better yet, suit up.
• Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman: There are tons of takeaways from this one. My biggest is the Thunder’s crunch time performance. This was the first time in the post-James Harden era that the Thunder has had to grind out a playoff victory. It won’t be the last. And remember, crunch time is when many believed the Thunder would miss Harden most. But not tonight it didn’t. OKC went 4-for-7 in the final five minutes. All four buckets were assisted. The Thunder was 4-for-6 from the foul line. Five different players scored. That’s about as good as it gets down the stretch. “I think all season long we’ve been doing a great job of closing out big games and trying to prepare ourselves for moments like this,” said Russell Westbrook. “And I thought tonight we all stuck together.” Only part of what Westbrook said is true. The Thunder has been preparing for these moments all season. But OKC technically hasn’t been doing a great job of closing out big games as Westbrook suggests. The Thunder had just eight games decided by three points or less in the regular season. OKC went 3-5 in those games. Each passing loss triggered questions and sometimes doubt about how the Thunder would perform this postseason without Harden.
• Jerome Solomon of the Houston Chronicle: But watching this series hasn’t changed anyone’s opinion that the Rockets will beat the Thunder four times which is what it would take to win the series. That said the discussion over the next couple of days should be about how the Rockets pulled off a surprise and whether they can withstand the Thunder roaring back with a vengeance in game 3. Instead, a gritty effort Wednesday night went to waste and Houston comes back home trailing the seven-game series 2-0 after a 105-102 loss. Game 3 at Toyota Center could provide an energy that might propel the Rockets over the hump in a game but you get the feeling that this was one that got away. A 25-2 fourth-quarter run including 16 straight points, to take a 95-91 speaks to the Rockets’ resilience and toughness. This is a team with heart. Maybe they play a simple style with a straightforward coach who doesn’t try to trick anybody, but that’s OK. As we’ve said from the start of the season, this team is fun to watch. Tonight was no exception. No, they can’t beat OKC four times in the next five games. But at least they don’t carry the folding gene. Patrick Beverley, inserted into the starting lineup to take some pressure off Jeremy Lin and to chase Russell Westbrook, was forced into 41 minutes of action when Lin went down with a chest injury. Beverley made a huge difference.
• Mike Wells of The Indianapolis Star: The Hawks failed miserably in their bid to be physical and punk the Pacers defensively. Now the Pacers are headed to Atlanta with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven NBA playoff series. … Game 3 is Saturday in Atlanta, where the Pacers have lost 11 straight to the Hawks. … It was no secret that the Hawks were going to play more physical on Wednesday. All you had to do was pay attention to what Hawks coach Larry Drew said after Game 1 on Sunday and during the two days since to know that. Drew even tried to pull a Larry Bird (the S-O-F-T line in the playoffs last season) and motivate his players by saying they got manhandled in Game 1. The Hawks kept their same starting lineup, but Drew used physical players DeShawn Stevenson, Ivan Johnson and Dahntay Jones earlier in the game. The Pacers could have easily fallen for the Hawks’ trap of getting up in their airspace and greeting cuts through the lane with some kind of body contact. The Pacers are used to playing physically, so they embraced what Atlanta was trying to do.
• Jeff Schultz of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Not Kyle Kover's series: Korver needed to be a factor offensively in this series for the Hawks, but he hasn't been -- at least not in a good way. In the two games, he has been limited to a total of 14 points on 5-of-17 shooting (4 of 13 from 3-point range). Maybe he's worn down or maybe it's just the Pacers' defense, but the Hawks don't have enough scorers to beat the Pacers if Korver isn't hitting. Whistle blowers: Before giving this statistic, it's clear that the Pacers have done more to draw fouls than the Hawks. However, these are some of the numbers that the Hawks will point to when they complain about officiating: They have been called for 50 fouls and three technicals (plus a technical for defensive three seconds), while the Pacers have been whistled for 38 fouls and no technicals. Indiana is 51 for 63 from the free throw line, the Hawks 18 for 34 -- a difference of 33 points. Josh Smith's early foul trouble Wednesday limited him to 20 minutes. That can't happen.
• Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times: They are the two shortest players on the court, yet 6-foot Chris Paul and 6-1 Mike Conley have perhaps the biggest impact there. They are the point guards who direct and make the all-important decisions for their teams, Paul operating for the Clippers and Conley running the show for the Memphis Grizzlies. And in the first two NBA Western Conference playoff games between the teams, the Paul-Conley matchup has been intriguing to watch. Paul's steely play has helped the Clippers open a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Conley's performance in Game 2 probably has given the Grizzlies hope in a series that shifts to Memphis for Game 3 on Thursday night. … To no one's surprise, Paul has raised his level of play in the playoffs. He's averaging 23.5 points on 57.1% shooting in the first two games, 8.0 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 34.5 minutes per game. During the regular season, Paul averaged 16.9 points on 48.1% shooting, 9.7 assists, 3.7 rebounds and a league-best 2.41 steals. … Paul is an All-Star and a most-valuable-player candidate. Conley, on the other hand, seems to go unnoticed for his skill set. But he has improved his play in the playoffs. He is averaging 20 points on 48.3% shooting and 7.0 assists in 36 minutes in the first two games.
• Ronald Tillery of The Commercial-Appeal: The Griz trail 2-0 in their best-of-seven, first-round playoff series with the Clippers, and they aren’t in the mood for much talking. This is a group that appears more focused on the work that needs to be done to climb back in this series. And the Griz insist that their confidence hasn’t been shaken. “There’s a sense of urgency,” point guard Mike Conley said. “It isn’t do or die. That’ll be if they win Game 3. Last game we came out and adjusted pretty well. One or two plays go our way and we win Game 2. We just need more of the same effort.” It’s true that the Griz need more of the same in terms of the energy, intensity and improved performances from key players they enjoyed in Game 2. But there are a few other areas that need shoring up if the Griz are to grab a victory in one or both of their home games and send the series back to Los Angeles for a Game 5.
• Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Bucks guard Monta Ellis said it's a matter of composure. The young Bucks team is facing a cool, calm Miami Heat squad that won 66 games and is trying to repeat its 2012 NBA championship. So getting rattled at any point in the game can be disastrous, as the Bucks found out in a short span to open the fourth quarter in Game 2. Miami reeled off 12 straight points on the way to a 98-86 home-court victory as it grabbed a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series. Game 3 is Thursday night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center as the series resumes in Milwaukee. "The NBA is all about runs," Ellis said after a light Bucks workout session at the Cousins Center training facility Wednesday. "We know they're going to make a run. We've just got to be ready to counter their run and keep our poise and play together.” … Bucks center Larry Sanders played his first two postseason games in Miami and admitted he had to settle himself down. "It's a lot of emotions, a lot of nerves," Sanders said. "A lot of jitters, excitement. You just have to control it even more than in the (regular) season. But I had some good practice."
• Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald: Coach Erik Spoelstra on Wednesday explained the Heat’s renaissance on the road quite simply: “More consistent minutes defensively. The first 20 games, it wasn’t the championship hangover. There were a handful of gaps during the game that we were not defending the way we’re capable of.” “Last two or three months, it was more consistent,” Spoelstra continued. Here’s the evidence: During the 11-11 start on the road, the Heat allowed 97.4 points per game. In the 19 road games since, it’s 90.7. Steals and blocks have come with greater frequency. “We were pretty loose those first 22 games,” forward Shane Battier said. “The effort we gave just wasn’t good enough. [Since then], we’ve played harder, played with more concentration.” Surprisingly, the Heat is averaging slightly more turnovers on the road during the 18-1 roll than during the 11-11 stretch.
• Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald: The Bulls are great at bouncing back from adversity, but can they carry the momentum from Game 2 into a series lead? A miserable performance in Game 1 had the Bulls ready for redemption two days later. Can they deliver another strong performance Thursday without first getting slapped around? "I wouldn't call (Game 1) a wake-up call. I'd call it a dose of reality," Jimmy Butler said. "We tried to make it an offensive game and we didn't guard anybody." By now, there aren't many secrets between the teams. If the Bulls play their style of defense, they will cause problems. Brooklyn has the star power with Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson to make it tough on any defense. Johnson missed Wednesday's practice because he's having issues with plantar fasciitis, but he's hoping to play in Game 3. There are bound to be some minor strategy adjustments. The Bulls focused in Game 2 on stopping Williams, who vowed that he wouldn't play that poorly again. "I think that's probably overblown," Thibodeau said of changing strategies. "The strengths of the team aren't going to change. We know how good they are and have to be ready.”
• George Willis of the New York Post: A key matchup tonight and for the remainder of the series is Nate Robinson versus Nets backup guard C.J. Watson. It’s a matchup that already drips bad blood. “I don’t like him and he don’t like me,” Robinson told ESPN Chicago, adding, “When you don’t like somebody and you’re playing against somebody, you want to destroy the other person. You want to shut that person down.” Robinson embraces his role as the antagonist, the pesky fly you can’t get rid of. He can get under an opponent’s skin with how he celebrates his points. The Bulls don’t mind. Not even coach Tom Thibodeau. “I tell people all the time that opposites attract,” Robinson said. “Coach is a drill sergeant type and I’m more less a free spirit who just goes with the wind. He likes to control everything. He lets me be me, but at the same time he lets me know if I stray off too far and what I need to know to get better.” A basketball series can be like an extended chess match. The Nets got the edge in Game 1, but the Bulls stepped up their defense and found a game-plan to shut down Deron Williams, who went from 22 points in Game 1 to eight points on 1-for-9 shooting in Game 2. Containing Williams remains one of the Bulls’ primary objectives tonight.

Holy smokes I am wicked lucky to have this job, a major part of which is to read. That's a crazy treat any day -- but doubly so when Brian Phillips is publishing stuff. (Where did he come from? Does he have like ten books I can buy everyone I know for Christmas? Does he run some kind of writers' camp I can attend?)

If I could write sentences with the word "lozenge" so aptly deployed, I'd print them up on t-shirts. Phillips? He rips 'em off by the thousand:

Airplanes aren’t supposed to be so small. How can I tell you what it was like, standing there under the trillion-mile blue of the Alaska sky, ringed in by white mountains, resolving to take to the air in one of these winged lozenges? Each cockpit was exactly the size of a coffin. A desk fan could have blown the things off course.

One writing skill where I take a backseat to no one, however, is tying things to the NBA that have no business being tied to the NBA. It's almost embarrassing the bric-a-brac -- running form articles, sex education, John Prine lyrics -- I have manhandled onto this blog through the years. (Yesterday somebody sent me a profile of Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon from Elle magazine. First time I can ever remember thinking, in close to a decade in this job, "I'd like to get this on TrueHoop but I really can't think of a way." A mere 24 hours later, though ... linked. I got this.)

So Phillips just dropped a gazillion fancy Grantland words on the Iditarod, of all things. It's wonderful. The real point of this post is to read that one.

The real game, though, for me, is to make my pitch somehow about basketball.

One opening: Phillips risks his life in the name of ... stat geekery. The race is risky to watch standing still at a checkpoint. Insanely, Phillips followed every mile by tiny lozenge of an airplane. The risk of death was real. And, amazingly, he did so not out of any lifelong romance with flying or snowy white expanses of wilderness. Instead he had a lifelong romance with things written on white pages in the stacks of some library. This is why he's on this odyssey:

I mean, the density stats are a joke. The U.S. average is 87.4 inhabitants per square mile. The 45th-most-dense state, New Mexico, thins that down to 17. Alaska has 1.28. And more than 40 percent of Alaskans live in one city! Factor out metropolitan Anchorage and you’re looking at about three quarters of one person per square mile, in a land area 10 times the size of Wisconsin.

I don’t know how you roll, emotionally, with respect to population-density tables. Personally I find this haunting.

I’ve always been fascinated by the cold places at the end of the world. Back when I used to spend a lot of time in libraries, I wasted stacks of hours going through polar-exploration narratives, tracking the adventurers who froze to death, the expeditions that vanished.

So there's an opening to discuss this on TrueHoop. Numbers at the edge of sanity. I can build that argument.

But I needn't. Right there in the middle of discussing a pre-Iditarod banquet, Phillips throws basketball bloggers everywhere a bone, by bringing up, of all things, his mukluk of a HoopIdea:

After the honorary musher, the starting order is determined by an elaborate NBA-draft-lottery-style number draw at a pre-race banquet. The numbers are drawn from a sealskin Eskimo mukluk, which is something the NBA should maybe look into. I was at this banquet; it ran for five hours. Every single musher made a speech (that’s more than 60 speeches). It was brutal. The only speech I liked was the one by Scott Janssen, a funeral-home director by trade who’s known as the “Mushin’ Mortician.” He introduced himself by saying, “Hi! I’m Scott Janssen, the Mushin’ Mortician.”

That would have been more than enough. But there was far more tying this sled-dog tale to hoops.

The killer connection comes late, after 1,000 soul-sucking miles of death risk, frostbite and hallucination, when the race has been won in the little town of Nome. It's one of the closest finishes ever, with Mitch Seavey beating Aliy Zirkle by minutes.

There’s such goodwill at the press conference. Mitch and Aliy eat cheeseburgers and crack jokes. There’s no sense that one of them just suffered an agonizing defeat; instead, there’s an air of conspiratorial wonder, like, Oh wow, can you believe we made it? As the sporting event that most closely mimics the experience of sustained brutal catastrophe, the Iditarod is maybe uniquely designed to amplify sport’s natural euphoria-making power with basic human relief. Which is one of the most thrilling things there is, if you think about it. Imagine if Game 7 were played on inflatable rafts in a shark tank; afterward LeBron would be all, That happened! I survived!

Everyone in the room gets this: fans, volunteers, media. It’s a close-knit world; people know each other. So when Mitch says —

“The brain kind of stops working somewhere along the Yukon. I offered Aliy a cough drop this morning and she decided it was too complicated to unwrap it.”

— the laugh that rolls through the room is not the brittle pre-deadline laugh of reporters being fed good copy but a delighted and leisurely laugh of people who’ve been there, or know someone who’s been there, and who just want to share in the moment.

Here's the thing: I love what Phillips is talking about, where "wow we survived" trumps "dang I wish I had crushed that dude."

And you know what? I'm not so sure it doesn't exist in the NBA. There's more of it around than you'd think.

Hell yes, LeBron James and Kevin Durant dream of killing each other in the Finals, maybe year after year. But hell yes they're also training together in the summer. How do we know they're not metaphorically offering each other lozenges (there's that word again!) the other may be too tired to unwrap?

People ranging from Larry Bird and Jeff Van Gundy rail against competitors treating each other warmly like this, but I love it. Playing your absolute hardest, being incredibly professional, leaving no stone unturned in the pursuit of a championship ... nothing about that requires the pre-war propaganda-style demonization. We can fight hard without believing they're devils.

And, if you'll allow me my own detour of a thousand miles: Role modeling civil behavior, even toward would-be enemies -- on a fractious and crowded planet, is there anything more important sports can do?

Phillips imagines LeBron James feeling some kind of profound kinship -- the communitas of survival -- with his opponents. The other day I talked about hard fouls with James' teammate James Jones. Jones sounds like he lives in a world a lot like that:

Our players are extremely competitive, but they're not malicious.

No guy in here wants to see another player injured. In the heat of the moment you may over react. In the heat of the battle you may put a little extra force to it.

But when that adrenaline rush is gone guys are extremely sincere in their regard for our health. Because we're a select few. Less than 500 of the world's best basketball players.

We're a brotherhood and we care for each other. And we care for the game. And we know injured players, it doesn't help our game, it only hurts it.